OMNIUM GATHERUM.

Otago Witness, Issue 2722, 16 May 1906, Page 4

OMNIUM GATHERUM.

Frost occurred on 14 nights m the Ranfurly (Otago Centra!) district during April.

Between £2500 and £3000 is to be expended in enlarging the Napier Working Men's Club premises. Diamonds may be biack as well as white ; while some are blue, red, brown, yellow, green, pink, and orange. A first offender who was arrested at Wellington on Tuesday for drunkenness had £37 16s Id in his possession.

The Clutha Free Press state* that the Molyneux River at Balclutha has been running bank high for the past week. Several members of the Dunedin Young Men's Christian Association are at present conducting an evangelistic mission .at Arrowtown, It is reported that the first Marlborough census return handed in showed a population of only 63 in 3(> sqnure miles of the Awatere country. An experiment was made some time ago by a woman who. in order to test the sustaining Jiowors of chocolate, lived upon xt for 60 days, and lost but 15lb in weight in the interval. The fishing indu«try is making satisfactory progress at Kaikoura. According (o Sydney advices, about £70 pr>r ton can be made out of trumpeter, blue cod. and butterfish, in the Sydney market. A man named Charles Pike committed suicide at Stawell (Victoria) recently by jumping down a shaft 3Qoft deep. He took off all his clothes except his shirt, and appears to have slid down the shaft. When found his neck was broken. Tlie nut trees of the world could, it is calculated, provide food all the year round for the population of th« globe. Brazil nuts groxv in sucb profusion that thousands of tons of them are wasted every year. At Woodville station a few days ago a Canterbury lady was robbe-J of a purse and rings The valuables were removed from a handbag which the lady had temporarily left on one of the station seats. Firing a revolver as a salute to a wedding procession, in accordance with an old Bavarian custom, a schoolmaster recently, at Nuremburg. us^d ball cartridges by mistake and killed one of the bridesmaids. The Bruce Herald says that there is a good deal of talk amongst farmers in the Milton district regarding their land valuations, which have in many instances been very considerably increased on the former \aluations.

According to +b.e report of the medical officer of the Galway Urban Council 14adults of both sexe^. a baby, two dogs, and a oouple of donkeys were the inhabitants of a house consisting of one room ai.d a kitchen.

A member of th© Masterton Racing Club sent in his resignation to the steward* on Saturday because he was in the service of the Railway Department, and the regulations prohibited servants being members of racing clubs. Diplomatic representations have been made to the Russian Government, with the view of obtaining the liberation of Rosa Luxemburg, a member of the staff of the Berlin journal Vorwaerts, who has been imprisoned at Warsaw.

At Civit-a Lavinia. Italy, a military balloon was at a height of over a mile from thp. ground when the envelope burst. The balloon fell to the ground with great rapidity, aiid all the occupants — a captain am' eight soldier? — were severely injured. While assisting in a search for her brother, wim was lost in the bosh at

Upper Beaconsfield (Victoria), a girl named Aggie Mason, aged 17 years, died from a fractured skull, wheh she sustained through a fall from her horse, which ran' aSvay with her.

The Right Hon. Mr Seddon has signified his pleasure at the birth of triplets at Geraldine by forwarding the sum of three guineas for presentation to them. Mr Seddon says that if the little ones are alive at the end of the year another three guineas will be sent.

The Dannevirke police got a conviction on a defended charge of drunkenness, on tb<> evidence that the accused entered the private box lobby at the post office under the impression that it was a totalisator house, and he expressed an urgent desire to "put a quid en No. 13."

The fines inflicted by Mr Cruickshank, S.M.. on the bookmakers convicted on Friday of trespassing on the Gore Racecourse aggregate the substantial amount of £7*. while the costs totalled £14 Is. The Standard states that the convictions will probabiy be appealed aarainst. The Alexandra Herald understands that the population of the borough of Alexandra, as accounted for in the census taken on the night of the 30th ult., will be about 940 inhabitants. At the census taken five years ago. when the dredging boom was at its height, the population showed 840.

No fewer than 20.000 - persons are reported mi&sirug in London every year. Only about one-fifth of these missing persons are ever accounted for. The others disappear from friends for ever. Many of them are " wanted " by the police, which explains why they do not reappear. Numbers of them leave London.

The Auckland police force includes M'lvor (champion amateur middle-weight wrestler of New Zealand), Burke (ehamnion amateur heavy-weight wrestler of New Zealand), and illingworbh of the •Black • Watch. He "was present at th« battle of Magerf-fontein, when his regime-nt was cut up and Colonel Wauohope killed.) Mrs Williams, of Wellington, who has distinguished herself by her generosity in making donations for religious purposes, has presented the Wellington District Committee of the Gongregational Union with a section at Alicetown,- valued at between,£SOO and £600. A building, for Sunday, school work will be erected on the, potion. , ''-— - At the Criminal Court, Perth, on April 19 Flojence Harford was sentenced to two years' imprisonment for jobbery with violence from an old, woman named Glen' Mart iri. The judge described' "the accused as a dangerous woman, against whom were five previous convictions. It was only her sex that kept him from ordering a gingSerious allegations have been made against a mcmljer of the Melbourne detective force, to the effect that he instigated two men to put up a crime in order that another might be convicted of receiving. It is also stated that the person so trapped was convicted, and is now serving a sentence of two years. An inquiry is to be made.

The maize jcrop .at Motiti Island, Bay of Plenty, this se,as6n promises to be well up to tfiat of previous.- years. The Natives have under crop, an ' area of '"about 300 acres, and taken at a low- estimate the yield should give a return of 15,000 bushels, a probable equivalent in cash of about £3000, should the price of the grain keep at its ,present level. The memory of the late Mr Robert Bvough, the well-known actor-manager, is to be perpetuated- by the members of the theatrical profession" throughout Australia. This oourse was decided upon at a meeting of theatrical managers in Sydney, when it was resolved that the memorial should take the form of a fountain, to be erected in a public plaoe in the City of Sydney. About three years ago tho Russian Government sent two musicians to Siberia to write dowji and collect the national melodies. By travelling from village to village, and attending the festivities of the peasantry, they secured an interesting collection, including 100 which were hitherto unknown. The collection is to be published in St. Petersburg as soon as social order is completely restored, and is looked for wirh much ouriosity in musical circles. A witness called in a case heard at the Magistrate's Court, Christchurch, last week, horrified the upholders of the dignity of the tribunal by strolling into the box with a lighted cigarette between his lips. "Put that cigarette out." cried the clerk with some asperity, and the individual, realising that he was in a place where freedom of conduct had its limitations, removed the cigarette, and dropped it into the recesses of his pocket. • Those in the vicinity of the post office on Wednesday mom ing (says the Hot Lakes Chronicle) were wist a little surprised to. see a modern landau arrive and three Maori ladies emerge from the vehicle. Having alighted, they stepped into the |»st office, and after a few minutes returned and reentered their carriage*. Inquiries elicited tho information that they had merely called at the post office for their old-age pension. A Palmereton North resident who was in Taihape last week informed the Standard that the township was making great strides. Government works are being carried out

in the town, arrangements having been made for the erection of a v-ory large engine shed in connection with ths Main Trunk railway service. Taihape k about to be formed into a borough, and there is ke-en riva'ry among the " big guns " there as to who shall have tho honour of being its first mayor. On Monday evening, at the meeting of the Palmerston Athenaaum Committee, it was resolved, in the interests of the young men of the district, to open a room for games of various kinds. Ths necessarysteps to obtain the material were taken, and the room will open from next week on Mondays, Tuesdays, Fridays, and Saturdays, from 7.30 to 10 p.m. It is hoped that a large number will avail themselves of the privilege, and that the committee's action _in this matter will meet with ' deserved success.

A quietly cynical person told a curious anecdote on Mosgiel Railway Station yesterday. 'JLhoro was. l:e said, a man trespassing (jn the line at Buraside, and as two local train-; came along the trespasser was caught between the two seta of rails. He threw himself on his face, intending to get up and depart when the v trains had passed. When that happened, he was picked up dead. He had died of starvation. As no such rrasedy has been ?'io far reported to the police, it is presumed that this was; an imaginative cynic.

A correspondent '-informs . th* , Oaniaru Mail that a certain solioolt committee in the North Otago- district- reesived three applications for the position .ot&h&rwoman, all the women asking 'EHe-saoie remuneration. The votes -were eveply divided between a poor widow wpmai? %yith six children and the wife of the chairman of the committee. The chairman, who owns 100 acres of land, settled the matter by giving his ci -ting vote in favour of his own wife. It is said that at least one member of the committee has resigned in consequence of the chairman's action. The Waverley correspondent of the Patea Press says: — "From all accounts the blessings of adversity are coming into strong evidence among the Maoris in the various pas in this neighbourhood. Want of daily bread is a stern taskmaster, and the failure of the potato crop has.- as was prophesied, brought most of the .Natives to the verge of dire -necessity. • '^ls "a jres"ult the men are taking their share "rath their white brethren in the world's work. -■- Maori buehfellers are not only making way- to bring more of their own sections , tinder cultivation, but are shouldgfihjr the-'axe and going into the bush to work for thopakeha. 1 ' At the Waerenga State -Farm this season, 20,000 vines were grafted; vsrfth a net result of 68 per cent, to the grafting; that is to say. out of every 100 rootings or cuttings grafted with European varieties, 68 made a strong union between scion and stock The cellars at Wacrenga contain at the present time about 2000 'gallons of wine, and this season's production is estimated at 3000 gallons, mostly claret and hock. It had been intended to make champagne this year, to show what can "Be done in the co'ony with this industry, but this has been deferred for another- year, when it is hoped that more cellar accommodation will b© available. - -

A le-mcy of £10 caused the death of | Thomas Archer, a night watchman, of Fleetwood.- He was found dead in bed after a drinking bout, which he began on receiving the money. A London costumier sued for a dress bill amounting to £1062. The jury found that the goods including a fur stole for which £340 was charged were "necessaries' for the lady considerng the station of her husband' The judge said a married woman living with her &HbsiscMjad an imphed ftotWiiw to plcdjre his nr*rilifc

The bulk of the crops en the Greenfield Estate are now in the stack, and the crops on tho whole are really good.—Clutha Leadci. A two-year-old light draught horse provided some excitement at Timaru on Saturday afternoon. \\ hen about to bo put in a railway truck the horse broke away and made for the harbour, where he mdulged in a swim, lasting nearly three hours. The horse, which was utterly , exhausted when landed died the next day. Its was abm.t £40-